Prof. Dr. Klaus Bruhn
The essay was published in Berliner Indologische Studien No. 13/14. 2000, pp. 273-337.
§ 9. Questions of the “Interested Layman“
Didactic as well as more general considerations have prompted us to attach considerable importance to the subject of questions arising in the mind of the observer. An interested layman may ask the following questions (some discussed above, some not):
Some less technical questions can be added:
The interested layman may also ask (or forget to ask) for information on rarely discussed subjects:
In some cases, the layman cannot ask. The issue of § 8 is a case in point. Many friends of Jaina art feel that one should know Jaina literature in order to understand Jaina art. This is perfectly correct in the case of Jaina miniature painting (lives of the Jinas, etc.), but it is not correct for Jaina iconography in toto. Here, one may say in an ironical manner that one has, no doubt, to study the texts, but only in order to forget them afterwards. It is perhaps normal that art (the artists living in their own world) and texts (the authors being subject to church authority) converge in the course of time. But in that case we must admit the ubiquity of non-literary elements.
The principle of layman's questions can be extended to other fields. Thus one may ask in connection with Jainism as a religion the following questions:
It is not possible to neutralize such questions by mentioning the difference between theory and practice, or the difference between East and West, or to respond with a simple ignoramus (admission of ignorance). The question of the layman is by necessity also the question of the expert, and the vocabulary of the expert should contain either a clear answer or an admission of inherent difficulties.